Welfare

[Babagounj]

TAUNTON…Today State Representatives Shaunna O’Connell, (R-Taunton) and Russell Holmes, (D-town), held a joint press conference to announce the filing of new legislation to reform the usage of EBT cards in the Commonwealth. “I had high hopes for the EBT Commission, but the suggested reforms fall far short of what is needed to ensure that taxpayers’ dollars are being protected. That’s why today we’re filing legislation to finally put an end to the waste, fraud and abuse with EBT cards,” said O’Connell.


The reforms include no cash advances, requiring stores to post signs that the buying alcohol, tobacco products and lottery tickets with EBT cards is prohibited, charging recipients a fee for requesting replacement cards, stopping out of state usage of the cards, and adding more businesses to list of establishments no longer allowed to accept the card payments.


“These cards are no longer EBT cards. They are ATM cards. With the overwhelming majority of it being withdrawn as cash, we have no oversight on how this money is being spent,” said O’Connell.

‘‘I believe the system is open to abuse ... when you go in and take out cash, no one knows how you spend that cash,’’ said another lawmaker on the panel, Rep. Russell Holmes, D-Boston.


“I am extremely pleased to have bi-partisan support for these reforms. This program is about providing people with necessities. Unfortunately, the present system is wide open torampant abuse. By working together, we can require the Patrick administration to implement measures that restore the integrity to the program,” said O’Connell.
Last week the EBT Commission released their final report which only suggested a few minor reforms to the usage of EBT cards. First, it limits places where EBT cards can be used. Second, the Inspector General is going to further investigate eligibility requirements of the cash assistance. Due to the Commission’s weak report, O’Connell feels it is necessary to push for legislation to force the Department of Transitional Assistance to make the appropriate changes.


“We are doing no favors for the people who truly need assistance by failing to pass restrictions to stop the abuse,” added O’Connell.

 

[menotyou]

Men,

I don't disagree in a general sense on welfare but in the case of native americans or indians if you like, you should go back and consider some history and then you might rethink the cause and effect. Case in point is economic professor Tom Di Lorenzo from Loyola College who said the following in an article for the Mises Institute:



As you read the above article, you might also begin to see where the idea for relationships like the State and ATT/Verizon against LightSquared that Tex posted about got it's start. If you really delve deep into the whole issue of welfare, 2 things will jump out. First, it wasn't so much begged for as it was forced and second, it serves as a dumping point for surplus goods to be absorbed and price support for aggregate demand.

I often hear the talking point that welfare folk are going to Walmart and buying bigscreen TV's and for the moment let's accept that point as fact (there is an indirect truth to it). So, the welfare queen takes your and my private property in the form of labor converted to tax dollars and purchases a big screen TV but whose the real benefactor in this process? Walmart but do we ever hear Walmart utter a peep against the Welfare State? Walmart ever at the frontlines of a Tea Party protest? Putting major money behind Libertarian style political candidate who would end public welfare for alltime? If welfare taxation and wealth redistribution is so bad, why isn't Walmart and all the major capitalist corp. players at the fore front against the welfare state? It's why I've posed the question before!

The public welfare state is a price support and creates a surplus demand for overproduced inventories to keep profits high by shedding the costs onto the backs of taxpayers by the use of wealth re-distribution via central planning. The other option would be to lower the overall price of the inventory but then with materials and labor costs fixed, the profits and 3rd party rent seekers would be the one to pay. And we thought capitalists couldn't be good socialist too? Tex's post on what happened to Lightsquared thanks to ATT/Verizon/State alliance is dead on the money. Kevin Carson's piece Welfare State for the Rich speaks well to this in a general sense.

It's easy for us to just look at the end result and blame the welfare end user as the cause but if you take the time and delve deep into this entire process, you'll begin to see those people in the end result as more the victim and they've been placed where they are (and more important kept there) as the scapegoat and fallguy so that the real culprits can get away with their scheme and never pay the price for it. In fact, we look to the captains of capitalism as leaders and experts and grant them even more power to continue doing the same and then some. And they buy and sell gov't at will and all we do is blame the people who have the least control over it all. And when you enter the voting booth, your vote regardless of which side just empowers and entrenches further the plantation system and builds the fences higher so fewer and fewer of us can escape.

Letting these people continue in power over us is like throwing Brer Rabbit into the briar patch!

I agree. But, I also believe that there are certain receivers that revel in the free money, no matter the pittance it is. They feed off of each other like a sick, twisted tape worm in an anorexic.

 

[klein]

I made the comparison to Natives with Africans tonight.
Both have plenty of land and rivers.
But both don't grow crops, gardens or raise animals.
They could be totally self-effecient, but aren't.

Africans reley on the UN and unicef and the like, while Native North Americans reley on governments.
No big difference there.

In the early days of Canada, and most provinces, they basically gave away land to the Europeans, so they would farm land.

 

[wkmac]

I agree. But, I also believe that there are certain receivers that revel in the free money, no matter the pittance it is. They feed off of each other like a sick, twisted tape worm in an anorexic.

True enough but then if this is the point of objection, and it's point taken, why do we limit the conversation to only one side of the welfare conversation?

Another case in point so why is he treated any different from the guy that uses his EBT card to bail himself out of jail? You could make the argument that a number of bankers on Wall Street used their EBT card to stay completely out of jail and yet why is no one berating this form of social welfare net?

 

[TechGrrl]

Speaking of welfare....

I heard the news today that Louisiana is trying to introduce a bill (after several tries) that will require drug testing to receive your welfare check.

One of the domino effects of a bill like that would be to make the druggies move out of your state. Maybe it'll pass this time around.

So far, empirical data where such laws have been enacted is that people tested out as being less likely to be using drugs than the general population. So much for that stereotype. Money spent for nothing.

Me, I would love to see a law that said that all members of state and federal legislative bodies are subject to 3 random drug tests while the legislative bodies are in session, with zero tolerance. One positive drug test and you are out on your butt, and lose all pensions. No more sucking at the public teat for you!

 

[moreluck]

Working for your welfare check makes sense.
OR, attending job training as a condition for receiving a check.

 

[old levi's]

Working for your welfare check makes sense.
OR, attending job training as a condition for receiving a check.

Along with drug testing on demand.

 

[wkmac]

Working for your welfare check makes sense.
OR, attending job training as a condition for receiving a check.

Why should I be forced to pay for job training determined by a state apparatus that is controlled by corp. business interests?

 

[moreluck]

Why should I be forced to pay for job training determined by a state apparatus that is controlled by corp. business interests?

So you would rather just hand money over to someone who doesn't want to work?....because that's the way it's done now.

 

[moreluck]

What if there's a guy out of work and his job used to be training......now he coud train peple as a part of receivng his welfare check and the people attending the training are there because they have to be there to get their checks too.

 

[wkmac]

So you would rather just hand money over to someone who doesn't want to work?....because that's the way it's done now.

If I don't like being forced to pay for job training, it might stand to reason I don't like being forced to do other things in other areas either.

 

[wkmac]

Where is the same level of outrage for this form of welfare?

There are two things every American needs to know about Bank of America.
The first is that it's corrupt. This bank has systematically defrauded almost everyone with whom it has a significant business relationship, cheating investors, insurers, homeowners, shareholders, depositors, and the state. It is a giant, raging hurricane of theft and fraud, spinning its way through America and leaving a massive trail of wiped-out retirees and foreclosed-upon families in its wake.


The second is that all of us, as taxpayers, are keeping that hurricane raging. Bank of America is not just a private company that systematically steals from American citizens: it's a de facto ward of the state that depends heavily upon public support to stay in business. In fact, without the continued generosity of us taxpayers, and the extraordinary indulgence of our regulators and elected officials, this company long ago would have been swallowed up by scandal, mismanagement, prosecution and litigation, and gone out of business. It would have been liquidated and its component parts sold off, perhaps into a series of smaller regional businesses that would have more respect for the law, and be more responsive to their customers.

Matt Taibbi: Bank of America Is a “Raging Hurricane of Theft and Fraud”

 

[moreluck]

I have a choice what bank I do business at. I don't have a choice about my tax money going to someone who sits on a couch and refuses to get a job.

 

[menotyou]

Where is the same level of outrage for this form of welfare?



Matt Taibbi: Bank of America Is a “Raging Hurricane of Theft and Fraud”

I love Taibbi.

 

[moreluck]

I love Taibbi.

What's it taste like ?

 

[menotyou]

What's it taste like ?

A little spicy, but soooo good!

 

[moreluck]

It is hard to believe that this video was made by Alexandra Pelosi (Nancy Pelosi’s daughter) and that it was aired on Bill Maher’s TV show. Real Time with Bill Maher March 16 2012 - Alexandra Pelosi Interviews Welfare Recipients in NYC - YouTube

 

[Babagounj]

[h=1]Raid of EBT card cheats just ‘beginning’ of fight[/h]Unscrupulous merchants and welfare abusers have pilfered millions in tax dollars from just the handful of Bay State stores that were raided by state and local cops as well as federal agents yesterday, police and prosecutors said. One Quincy convenience store is suspected of ringing up $700,000 in fraudulent food stamp sales over the past two years, while a cluster of Chinatown shops is being eyed for as much as $200,000 a month in questionable charges, officials said. Bostonherald.com first reported the raids yesterday.
The Attorney General’s Office arraigned a Quincy store owner yesterday and is charging 21 other people with larceny and fraud after raids in Quincy and Fall River, while the feds are heading up a widening probe. Officials said the charges involve EBT cardholders illegally taking cash from stores that rang up false grocery receipts, pocketing half the total.
State Rep. Shaunna O’Connell (R-Taunton) has led the push to curb EBT abuse, against administration reluctance. She said of yesterday’s raids: “I’m not too surprised at all. This goes to prove this is a much bigger problem than anyone thinks it is.”

 

[menotyou]

Raid of EBT card cheats just ‘beginning’ of fight

Unscrupulous merchants and welfare abusers have pilfered millions in tax dollars from just the handful of Bay State stores that were raided by state and local cops as well as federal agents yesterday, police and prosecutors said. One Quincy convenience store is suspected of ringing up $700,000 in fraudulent food stamp sales over the past two years, while a cluster of Chinatown shops is being eyed for as much as $200,000 a month in questionable charges, officials said. Bostonherald.com first reported the raids yesterday.
The Attorney General’s Office arraigned a Quincy store owner yesterday and is charging 21 other people with larceny and fraud after raids in Quincy and Fall River, while the feds are heading up a widening probe. Officials said the charges involve EBT cardholders illegally taking cash from stores that rang up false grocery receipts, pocketing half the total.
State Rep. Shaunna O’Connell (R-Taunton) has led the push to curb EBT abuse, against administration reluctance. She said of yesterday’s raids: “I’m not too surprised at all. This goes to prove this is a much bigger problem than anyone thinks it is.”

The fraud that occurs in that system is disgusting. I wish they had a way to measure those who know how to 'work' the system. Too many know how many days a month you can work before going over your food stamp eligibility amount. Too many others, just pump out kids to get their checks upped. Just the tip.

 

[Babagounj]

The local Dem machine keeps saying that the local paper is only trying to make people angry.
The reality is that without better controls on just what EBT cards can be used for( cruise ships, casinos, ATM's, liquor , lottery tickets, tatoos, etc. ) the waste will continue.
Each month 20,000 are reported lost and replacement cards are just given out free.
The reality is those cards are sold for pennies on the dollar to merchants or drug dealers. The free replacement has to stop, a fee should be charged , that would halt some of the fraud. Also a picture on the card of the real owner would help.